Nice for u to be reading a Chinese history book, keep it up!!
Moving tech groups can be a solution, i guess, but i still dont think it should come in an event. The most that the Zheng He event should be able to do is perhaps to slide the DP by 1 level, and thats not enough if we want to increase the initial tech by so much. So maybe just make Ming exotic at the very start. Or just increase the penalty for Confucianism instead of all the fuss.
It's not that i think the actual Confucian philosophy inhibits technology more than say counter reformed catholics, it's just that i think it's the best way to simulate the rapid rise of Europe overtaking all other civilisations, WITHOUT altering the game pace. Is there any way to change the tech group modifier?? if there is, it would be the better and more realistic option than changing the religious modifier. I would tend to increase all the tech group modifiers relative to Europe but give them initial advantage. If that can be done then we can make the religious modifier more realistic.
It's hard to say whether confucianism realistically affects technological progress more or less than catholics. To start with, Confucianism isnt even really a religion in the general sense. It doesnt really seek to explain how the world works, it's just a kind of model for a way of life. So "religion" in the East is not really as important as the West, and in the Eastern perspective it would certainly be weird to categorise Confucianism as a state religion along with Buddhism, etc, as alternatives and give provinces a penalty because they practice Buddhism "instead of" Confucianism. In Chinese history, there has really never been conflicts between the so called "religions" of Confucianism and Buddhism, basically bcos there is little inconsistency between the two ideas so they can coexist. The only conflicts were between Buddhism and Taoism. Relative to the West, Confucianism is not really that interested in sciences and emphasises on humanities, but the fact that it strongly favours academic as opposed to physical prowess perhaps shows that it supports technological progress.
